Hello
I don’t know if you’ve seen one of these yet, but there’s a new type of scam that’s popular with con-artists at the moment. And they can be pretty convincing.
It goes something like this…
You get a text message or a message to your phone through a service like WhatsApp. It’s from an unknown number, but says something along the lines of, “Hello Mum (or Dad), sorry I lost my old phone, here’s my new number”.
Now obviously, this only works if you’ve got children – but a lot of people have, so it’s a fair bet for the crooks.
They then send a string of messages to try to part you with your cash.
One of the most common lines is that they need to make an urgent payment to someone, but all their security checks with the bank were set up on their old phone. It’ll take a while to get their new phone approved with the bank, so could you pay the bill in the meantime. (Nowadays, that is actually a genuine problem, but being asked for money should always set alarm bells ringing!)
As I say, these messages can be quite convincing on the surface, but they’re sent out at random. The scammer doesn’t actually know who you or your children are, so they won’t be able to answer a simple question like, “Which daughter is this, please?”. So if in doubt, just ask a personal question – if it really is your son or daughter on the other end of the messages, you can explain why you asked once you’re sure it’s really them.
Have you ever tried an online course?
As you probably know, we’ve written lots of books about using various devices and gadgets. And lots of people have found them very useful (hopefully you’re one of them!)
But while reading about something can be a great way to learn, there’s nothing quite like seeing something done. So over the last few years, we’ve started making online video courses as well as our books. They’ve proved really popular… and we’ve had some lovely comments from people saying how much they’ve helped.
So over the last few months, Ellen, Kathryn and I have been working our little socks off to bring our Tablets Made Simple and Smartphones Made Simple courses bang up to date. Because with technology being technology – new features are coming along all the time and so the way you do things on a tablet or smartphone changes all the time too.
And that means we’ll be re-opening the courses to new members from 11am tomorrow – Tuesday 8th February.
If you ever find your tablet or smartphone awkward or frustrating to use – or think there might be more you could do with it if only someone showed you in a simple, easy way – then look out for more information about the courses tomorrow at 11am.
Yours
Julie Wakeling